River-runners checking flows on the Animas River on Sunday morning awoke to find the river had more than doubled overnight, reaching near historic flows.
But alas, the prospect of late-season big water was short-lived.
According to the USGS gauge in Durango, the Animas River was running at 2,530 cubic feet per second (cfs) – more than double the July 29 flow of about 900 cfs and just shy of the historic record of 2,780 cfs in 1957.
The significant jump seemed somewhat possible given the massive monsoons that hit Durango late Saturday night into Sunday morning, with one weather station recording nearly 1.5 inches of rainfall.
But as it turns out, Megan Stackhouse, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction, said that despite the storms that rolled through, the Animas River did not reach peak season-like flows.
“It was an equipment issue,” said Stackhouse, who confirmed the gauge failure with the River Forecast Center in Salt Lake City.
Stackhouse said the river flow at that station will be listed as “missing” until the gauge can be fixed.
Regardless, the Animas River did see a sizable uptick in flows as a result of the heavy rainfall, with the gauge below the Durango Pump Plant recording 1,330 cfs – more than 400 cfs above that gauge’s historic flow recorded in 2008.
Teal Lehto, an employee at 4 Corners Whitewater, was at the Animas River Whitewater Park on Sunday.
“A lot of the rocks are underwater, so I’d say it’s at least running at 1,400 cfs,” she said.
According to National Weather Service, there’s a 30 to 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms through Wednesday, with daytime high temperatures near the low 80s.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
